Shattered Glass
by that-fourth-chaos-emerald
Summary: When a bomb is dropped on Sonic's home city, Sonic is the only one to escape the blast. Now he must return to the demolished city in order to find his friends, as well as find out who caused the devastation. Rated T for gore and violence.
1. Chapter 1: The Crash (UPDATED)

_Thank you all for your reviews and feedback! I appreciate it very much! Here is the first chapter updated with some edits and slight changes to hopefully improve clarity and overall quality. I hope you enjoy!_

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It all happened in a flash of brilliant white light. No one could foresee it, and no one could outrun it— except for the fastest thing alive.

It started out as a normal day. The sun was shining brightly, the flowers had begun to bloom as spring gradually approached, and the trees swayed gently in the calm breeze, their leaves finally emerging from their buds. It had been a while since Eggman last attacked, and the town was at peace.

Everything was peaceful.

Then, just like that, it wasn't.

When the bomb hit, the leader of The Rebellion— Sonic the Hedgehog— managed to zip out of harm's way many miles from the source of the explosion. Even from his immense distance, the effects could be heard as well as felt as a loud crash was accompanied by a wave of heat radiating out from the center of the blast. A rush of wind shook the leaves of the trees nearby as Sonic stopped and turned to face what had once been his city. His home.

 _No…_

He immediately dashed towards the direction of the explosion, treading slowly and carefully as he neared the point of devastation. Even from miles away, he could already see the immense devastation that awaited him. There was almost nothing left standing; there were only a few buildings laid about sparsely that were still upright, but they were engulfed in flames. It looked almost as if a great tsunami had completely wiped out everything that had once been Sonic's hometown.

 _There's nothing left…_

As Sonic reached the source of the explosion, pieces of what had once been buildings covered the streets, and the air around him slowly grew more and more smoggy, filling his lungs with black smoke. He coughed violently, his body gasping for clean air to breathe.

 _This can't be happening… I should have seen this coming…_

Sonic turned on his wrist communicator and the screen on his wrist glowed dimly in the thick smog. "Does anybody copy?" he spoke into the receiver.

Silence.

"Tails, do you copy? What happened?"

More silence.

"Can anybody hear me?!" he yelled, his voice becoming tense in desperation.

His plea was only answered by unforgiving static.

 _This must be a dream… You're dreaming, Sonic._

Sonic shut off his communicator. He looked up from his wrist and tried to make his eyes adjust to the haziness. He looked to the sky and could see the sunlight peering down through the thick smoke, now tinted red by the condition of the air. "Hello?!" he called at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing hollowly around him. "Can anybody hear me?!"

He paused for a full minute, waiting for any kind of response. After receiving no answer, Sonic walked through the rubble, not entirely sure where his feet were taking him. He looked around him as the smoke slowly started to dissipate. A layer of ash laid like a blanket over the whole town, reminding Sonic of a fresh snowfall. He could make out piles of charred stone and melted metal around him as well as multiple fires glowing in the distance, presumably burning buildings.

 _I don't understand…_

As he continued his steady pace, his foot caught on something and he stumbled forward, nearly falling flat on his face. He looked back to see what it was he had tripped on.

It was a dismembered leg.

Sonic had to suppress a sudden wave of nausea and started running away from the horrid sight as he continued his trek through the demolished city. He had a single thought in his mind: _I have to find Tails._

At that moment, he heard an ear-piercing scream coming from his right side. He immediately dashed towards the sound, continuing to tread carefully amongst the debris. The farther he ran towards the source of the scream, the worse the devastation became. There was almost nothing. No remnants of a street, no remnants of buildings, just… _nothing_. It was at this moment that Sonic realized he had only been at the outskirts of the blast, and the destruction was much greater than he had previously thought. After what felt like forever, he finally made it to the source of the cry for help.

It was coming from a pile of what had probably once been some sort of large building located on the opposite outskirt of the explosion. He began digging through the bricks and debris, trying to find whoever was buried beneath. Eventually, a face emerged from the rubble. It was a female Mobian wolf with a beautiful coat of fur that was now covered in ash and blood. She coughed and sputtered, her breathing labored due to the ash and smoke in the air. "H-Help me," she choked. She was immobilized, lying on her back. Only her face was visible as her lower half was still trapped beneath debris.

Sonic nodded towards her, determined to remove her from the pile that was holding her hostage. Brick by brick he uncovered her arms, her chest—

She coughed again, but this time blood dripped from her mouth.

Sonic's distress grew as he uncovered her stomach to find that a piece of piping had pierced straight through her back all the way through her stomach, its broken, sharp end shining red with her blood.

"I-I can't feel my legs," she said hoarsely, staring up at the black sky, unable to see her devastating injury below. "Wh-What happened to me? What happened to our home?!" she asked Sonic, growing frantic.

"Shh, it's alright, it's alright," Sonic said as calmly as he could, but he could feel the cold grip of fear squeezing his stomach. "You're going to be okay, I promise." He started to press his hands against the wound, struggling to stop the bleeding. The blood quickly soaked through his gloves. He was running out of time, he needed to find some sort of gauze—

"…Why?" Her voice came out in a rasp.

Sonic looked up from the wound, his racing thoughts briefly interrupted.

"What did we do wrong…?" A tear rolled down the side of her face. "Why did this have to happen to us…?"

"I…" Sonic struggled to find words, looking down at her wound, then to his hands, his gloves now crimson. "I-I don't…" he trailed off, searching to say something that would console her.

But when he looked back into the young wolf's face, her eyes were fixated towards the blood-red sun in the sky and her body was limp. Lifeless.

"It's all my fault…" he said, barely above a whisper. He reached a shaking hand out and gently pushed her eyelids closed, hoping to make her look more at peace, but with her mutilated body and fearful expression, it didn't have much effect.

After a moment, he stood up straight and looked around him once more, looking and listening for any other signs of life among this terrible nightmare. His eyes fell on a large fire blazing in the distance; another building that had escaped being leveled but could not escape the intense heat of the blast.

Before taking off in the direction of the flames, he looked down once again to the young girl lying amongst the rubble. Her terrified expression and her mutilated body would stay etched in his memory in the many years to come. He slipped off his blood-soaked gloves with shaky fingers, tossing them unceremoniously into the pile of debris.

 _This is all just a dream._

He started walking towards the fire in the distance.

 _This is just a nightmare._

He went into a jog.

 _This isn't real._

He broke into a frantic run.

 _I need to wake up._


	2. Chapter 2: The Long Road (UPDATED)

He couldn't run fast enough. He had to find Tails. He had to find someone. _Anyone._

"There have to be survivors," Sonic assured himself. "There _have_ to be _._ "

Sonic continued running, navigating around debris and small fires still burning among the rubble. The tall, blazing fire was just ahead of him, and he could already feel the immense heat emanating from the flames.

The blue hedgehog skidded to a halt in front of the gigantic blaze, looking up at the towering inferno. Sonic did a full turn as he looked around him, trying to figure out where he was in the now-demolished town. The area looked vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite figure it out. As he was trying to get his bearings, he caught something shimmering out of the corner of his eye amongst the rubble near the flames. He raced over towards it and stooped down, digging through the various pieces of metal and concrete until he finally found the glowing object.

Sonic carefully pulled a bright, golden ring from the debris and looked down at it with a stunned expression, the light reflecting in his emerald eyes. He absorbed the precious energy, a comforting warmth filling his whole body as the ring faded into nothingness. He looked to the burning structure once more, and with a sinking feeling in his stomach he realized where he was.

 _This is Tails' workshop._

He jumped to his feet, and in a flash, he was as close as he could get to the fire without becoming engulfed.

"TAILS!" he called as loud as he could. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?! ARE YOU IN THERE?!"

He paused, waiting for a response, but the only thing he could hear was the roaring of the flames and workshop slowly crumbling apart.

 _I have to get in there._

Sonic glanced around, looking for anything that would protect him from the flames inside, but found nothing that would provide an adequate amount of protection. He did, however, find a slab of concrete possibly from a nearby building laying on the ground near the workshop.

The blue hedgehog picked up the slab with some effort and walked towards the entrance to the burning workshop. This'll have to do.

He took a deep breath—which wasn't very refreshing due to the smoggy air—and took a small step into the building, using the concrete as a sorry excuse for a shield against the roaring flames.

"TAILS!" Sonic called. "MILES, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

At this point, he was barely inside the doorway of the burning workshop. The flames licked at the concrete and threatened to wrap around and burn his hands. He took another cautious step inside, the concrete surprisingly doing a fair job at protecting him from the fire. However, the heat was unbearable and the smoke in the air was slowly suffocating him.

Sonic hesitated before stepping out of the fire, coughing and choking as he struggled to get his breath back. He turned to face his best friend's workshop once more, a look of utter defeat on his face. There was no way he could possibly get in there without being scorched to death or possibly dying of smoke inhalation.

There was no way anyone could possibly be alive in that workshop.

"Where else could Tails be…?" he thought aloud, not liking the sound of his own croaky voice. He couldn't accept that his friend was in there. He _had_ to be somewhere else, somewhere safe.

Sonic struggled to think back to right before the explosion, which seemed like such a long time ago…

" _Sonic, can you please focus?" Tails had asked, waving a hand in front of his brother's blank expression._

 _Sonic glanced up from his hands, where he had been fiddling with his glove idly. "Mm-hmm," he responded unenthusiastically._

 _The young fox sighed. "This is really important, okay? The entirety of the Labyrinth Zone District is counting on us."_

" _Yeah, yeah, I know…" Sonic muttered in response, looking back down to his gloves, his eyelids feeling heavy. He couldn't remember the last time he felt well-rested. His sleep lately had been interrupted by numerous nightmares along with late-night spy missions. All he wanted was to take a nice, long nap in the fresh air…_

" _Alright, I'll repeat it one more time," Tails said, being patient with him. "First, I am going to head down to Eggman's lair and attempt to hack into their electronic system. While I do this, you're going to act as a distraction to keep the badniks away from me while I work. Got it?"_

Sonic snapped out of his reminiscence. "Eggman's lair!" he finally recalled, and he zipped away as the workshop crumbled to the ground behind him.

The speedy hedgehog soon arrived at the edge of Eggman's lair, which had taken significant damage on its left side.

 _Maybe Eggman didn't set off that bomb after all_ , Sonic thought. _That, or his aim was off._ He almost grinned at the thought of his arch nemesis accidentally damaging his own lair.

He approached the hole in the side of the massive base where himself and the fellow Freedom Fighters had secretly entered through many times before. Sonic took in a breath and held it as he wriggled his way to the opening on the other side. Even though he had crawled through this hole many times, he still felt his claustrophobia grip at his stomach. It was a childish fear that he just could not shake, no matter how many times he came through this secret entrance. Sonic finally made it inside and released the breath he had been holding. He glanced around cautiously, thinking that there would possibly be a trap waiting for him upon entry. However, the place seemed empty, as if someone had left in a hurry. The lights were still on, a robot was getting repairs that were left unfinished over in the corner of the large room, and a record player was softly playing classical music. Sonic quickly recognized the tune to be Mozart's Symphony No. 36. It was easy to recognize with the steady pulse in the bass and the quick, powerful melody in the upper strings. He had always wanted to be a musician, but that was a dream that was destroyed along with the rise of The Empire…

Sonic pulled his attention back to the matter at hand as he jogged through the evacuated building. "Tails!" he called, his voice echoing around the lair.

Sonic quickly searched the entire East and Central Wing of the base, but to no avail. He approached the West Wing, which was the one impacted by the explosion. The ceiling was caved in, fire was blazing sporadically, and every badnik in the wing was damaged beyond repair.

"Miles!" Sonic yelled into the entrance. His call, yet again, went unanswered.

This fire was not nearly as bad as the one back at Tails' workshop. It blazed in patches that were possible to avoid if one was very cautious. Sonic took a step into the West Wing, carefully avoiding the fires, trying not to get too close. He maneuvered throughout the wing, calling his brother's name over and over until his voice was hoarse. At one point, he had to roll out of the way of a falling rafter, narrowly avoiding the crushing impact.

As he neared the end of the West Wing, he started to lose hope and decided to turn back, but then he saw something in the corner of his eye.

 _A hand._

Not just any hand, Tails' hand! His brother lay trapped underneath a section of fallen ceiling, his limp, outstretched hand the only part of his body visible.

Sonic let out a cry of relief as he made his way over to the young fox. "Don't worry, buddy, I'm almost to you! Just hang in there!" he called.

He soon made it to the young fox and started lifting the heavy pieces of ceiling from on top of him. If his brother was alive, he definitely sustained some injuries.

Once Tails was finally uncovered enough to be removed from the burning pile of debris, Sonic noticed that he was unconscious. He bent down to carry him to safety. As he reached out towards his friend, flames jumped out of the pile of ceiling rafters and licked at Sonic's right forearm. He yelped in pain, but pushed through the intense burning sensation so that he could save his brother. Sonic hooked his arms under both of Tails' own and hoisted him up onto his back.

He maneuvered carefully through the crumbling West Wing, ducking to avoid rafters that were dangling from above. Sonic could almost feel his lungs becoming coated in ash as he coughed violently, the hot smoke burning the back of his throat.

The two finally managed to make it out of the West Wing. By this point, the fire was quickly spreading to the Central Wing. Mozart was still playing on the nearby record player, the upbeat classical music getting drowned out by the crackle of flames and the crashing of falling rafters.

Thankfully, Sonic was able to open the main door from the inside and did not need to exit the same way he had come in. He carried his brother out of the lair and gently laid his limp body on the ground once he was sure they were a safe distance away from the fire.

"Tails," he said, brushing his bangs from his closed eyes. "Tails, can you hear me buddy?"

His brother lay on the ground, motionless.

Sonic could feel dread clawing at his stomach. He leaned down and laid his head on his chest, listening for a heartbeat, a breath, _anything._

"C'mon, Tails," he said, his voice cracking as he felt a lump in his throat.

 _He can't see you cry. No one can._

He heard nothing.

"Tails…"

He pressed a shaky finger against Tails' neck, searching desperately for a pulse.

 _I have to be strong._  
He felt nothing.

"Miles!" he punched the ground, his fist shaking. "Miles, you can't leave me!"

 _A hero doesn't cry._

He felt hot tears rush down his cheeks, dropping onto the ash below.

"YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!"

…

Dig. Toss. Dig. Toss. Dig. Toss.

The blue hedgehog numbly piled up dirt beside him as he dug a deep hole. His emerald green eyes were almost grey, and dark circles hung just below them. His arm burned red and angry in the sunlight, but Sonic pushed through the pain. He had to do this now.

He found a place far from the devastation; a grassy hill covered in colorful flowers in the beautiful Emerald Hill Zone. He stood under a lush, green tree that towered above the landscape.

 _This is where we went on our first adventure, remember?_ he silently asked the limp figure lying beside him.

Sonic sighed _. How long has it been since the bomb?_ Sonic thought. _24 hours? 12?_

There was no way to tell. And to Sonic, it didn't really matter.

Finally, the hole was big enough for its purpose. Sonic carefully picked up his friend, carrying him as if he would shatter at any moment.

He laid him into the grave slowly, then stood up straight. Sonic looked down at his brother's body. If he didn't know any better, he would say Tails was simply in a deep, deep sleep.

Sonic started to shovel the dirt on top of the young fox. This didn't feel real.

It _couldn't_ be real.

Once the hole was finally filled, he looked around for anything that could be used to mark the grave. Rocks, flowers, and branches were all that surrounded him on the hill. His ears perked at an idea as he materialized the bright, golden ring.

 _The one from his workshop…_

He placed the ring on top of the pile of dirt, and it flashed brilliantly in the sunlight.

"…I'm sorry," his voice choked out. "This shouldn't have happened. I should have done something; I-I should have known—…" he trailed off, unable to find the words he wanted to say.

A breeze blew down the hill, rustling the leaves in the tree above where the blue hedgehog stood.

"…I'm going to find who did this," Sonic said firmly, clenching his fist. "And I am going to make them suffer for what they did to you. I _will_ avenge you, Tails. That's a promise."

Sonic stooped down and picked up a rock at his feet. He approached the trunk of the tree and started etching a rough design into the bark. His arm burned from the effort, his injury only becoming more and more painful as time went on. Sonic stifled a sniffle as he stepped back to look at his work, wiping at his eyes.

On the trunk of the tree two stars were etched, forming the symbol of The Resistance.

Tears ran down his face as Sonic put one fist over his heart and the other up towards the sky, his arm burning almost as fiercely as his raging heart.


End file.
